


Tell the Truth

by opalmatrix



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: Confessions, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 17:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11212647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalmatrix/pseuds/opalmatrix
Summary: An expedition, an injury, a storm:  Moon, Jade, and Chime have to figure out a way to take their minds off their precarious situation.





	Tell the Truth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spoke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/gifts).



> Spoke had some questions: "How does settling in to the colony tree effect the relationship between Chime and Moon and Jade, as time goes on ... Jade has never been interested in male warriors - is Chime an exception, or not ... What does Moon think of any of this ...?" I've suggested some answers! Many thanks to my Beta readers, [Lady_Ganesh](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh) and [Elsane](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsane/pseuds/Elsane).

"Do you think we have enough baskets for all of this?" Merit asked Moon. They were standing in a clearing in a coastal forest a couple of hours’ flight from the colony tree. A few weeks ago, a party of Indigo Cloud hunters had discovered some groundling ruins on the forest floor. With most of the year's harvest done, Pearl had permitted a team of mentors to come explore the low, rounded buildings and learn what they could. 

Moon shrugged. Half a dozen old blankets were spread out on the ground, covered with pottery, beads, rusted knife blades, and all sorts of other things that had once been some community's livelihood. "You can always put some of it back for later."

“Delin is going to love this stuff!” said Thistle. She was playing with a set of little glass ovoids they'd found, turning them over and rearranging them so that their colors shifted in the hazy sunlight. No one was really sure what they were for, but they were pretty.

“He’s not going to get a chance to see it if we don’t get it all packed up and take it back home,” Merit pointed out.

Neither of them seemed to be getting very far with the artifacts, so Moon picked up a couple of ceramic tablets and put them into a basket himself. Predictably, both mentors broke off the discussion to show him—politely, of course—how it should really be done. Chime came over to help, and even Serene and Briar ended up carrying a couple of loads of metal oddments and graceful but cracked pottery vessels to where the mentors had set up their packing effort. Soon enough, despite a number of disagreements about how best to cushion the most fragile pieces, all but one of the baskets were packed full.

“We should start back,” said Jade. She was looking around, uneasy. Moon frowned and sniffed the wind. No trace of Fell taint, but the air tasted chancy, as though there was a charge of lightning mixed into it somehow. “I don’t like this wind,” he said.

“No,” said Chime. “And it’s getting dark.”

It was. “It’s only just past midday,” said young Copper, uneasily.

“A storm is coming,” said Merit. “We’d better get under way.”

“Yes,” said Jade. “Chime can pack this last basket. Moon and I will stay with him. The rest of you, get going.”

Moon started to pick up the remains of their camp as the rest of the party took wing, the warriors carrying the mentors and the loaded baskets of ancient relics. Chime continued wrapping the last precious pieces in reed mats, layers of moss, and old cloth. Jade stowed them in the basket, her frills and spines twitching irritably as the rising wind gusted and blew bits of leaves and twigs about them. “That’s the last of it,” said Chime. He tied off the cords that kept the lid securely in place.

Moon was knotting ropes around the rolls of bedding. Jade stretched and looked around. “I’m going up for a look at the weather," she said.

“I’ll do it,” said Chime. He sounded a little anxious, and Moon wondered whether some of the other warriors had been scolding him about the duties of a proper warrior again. Certainly it was the business of a warrior in service to a queen to handle the practicalities of travel, including evaluating the weather, but Moon and Jade didn’t need to be sheltered from that sort of thing. Jade shrugged. “Go, then,” she said.

The wind was moaning through the branches as Chime shifted and launched himself into the air. “Keep it short,” Moon shouted after him.

“He should be fine,” said Jade, but her eyes were on the clouds to the east, toward the sea. They were boiling, the color of an old bruise. Moon scowled and looked around the clearing where they had made their camp. He’d gotten everything, as far as he could see, but it was hard to tell: their air was full of scraps of vegetation and dust.

The wind began to roar through the trees, and a sudden shout made them both look up. Chime was trying to come in for a landing, but the ferocity of the wind was giving him trouble. Suddenly he spun out of control and dropped. Moon and Jade both shifted and leapt into the air, trying to come in below him to break his fall, but he was so close to the ground already that they had little room to maneuver. He tumbled across Moon’s back and crashed into a tree trunk.

Jade landed beside Chime as Moon made a half-circle to regain control. She was brushing twigs and leaves off Chime’s face by the time Moon managed to alight successfully and run over. “Is he dead?” asked Moon, his voice tight.

“No, he’s breathing,” said Jade. Chime was slumped against the tree trunk, his head hanging, but the angle looked normal.

“What should we do?” asked Moon. 'I don’t think we can carry him in this wind.”

“No, I don’t think even Stone could carry him in this,” said Jade. “The others know where we are. They’ll come look for us when the storm dies down.”

Rain was starting to fall, lashed almost sideways by the wind. Chime’s eyelids twitched, and he moaned. 

Moon crouched down next to them. “Did he hit his head?” 

“I don’t know,” said Jade. She was clearly as worried as Moon was. “Chime? Can you hear me?”

Chime frowned and then gasped. “Y-yes. What happened?”

“You went up to look at the weather,” said Jade. “Then the wind caught you when you tried to land. You hit this tree.”

“What hurts?” said Moon. The way Chime looked, Moon really wanted to touch him, but he was afraid to do that without knowing where Chime was hurt.

“My shoulder. L-left shoulder. I-I can’t move that arm. Or wing.”

“You’re sure you didn’t hit your head?” Jade’s voice was quiet, so that Moon could barely hear her above the wind and low rumbles of thunder, but her tone was urgent.

“No,” said Chime. “It doesn’t hurt.”

Jade felt his skull and neck gently. “Does this hurt? How about this?”

“No,” said Chime, over and over as she probed him gently, until she got near his left shoulder. Then he closed his eyes and his normally copper skin went dull and greyed. “Don’t do that!” he gasped.

Jade turned to Moon, rain running down her face. “We should build him some sort of shelter.”

Moon was dubious. “I guess we can do something to help keep larger branches from landing on him. But I don ’t think we have anything waterproof that won’t blow away in this wind.”

“Just—do whatever you can,” said Jade.

She was probably feeling horrible because she couldn’t help Chime, who was starting to shiver with the damp and the shock of his injuries. Moon didn’t feel so great himself when he thought about that. “Let’s get him down flat. I think this spot will stay above water.”

She stared at him and then followed his gaze downward to where rivulets of rainwater were turning into small streams in the low-lying areas between the trees. “This could be a problem,” she said, her voice strained.

Between them, they eased Chime flat. He seemed to faint again as they moved him, but a minute later he opened his eyes once more, blinking against the rain. Jade huddled over him protectively while Moon foraged for large branches. 

He found several saplings standing in place, dead from the lack of sunlight under the larger trees, snapped them off near their roots, and brought them back. He lashed the longer timbers together into a triangular frame and placed it carefully over Chime and Jade, draping blankets over it. Then he broke and split some smaller pieces and used them as stakes, running cords from them over the top of the contraption and pulling them tight. The wind was pushing against the flat sides formed by the blankets now, and he was worried that the crude stakes wouldn’t hold. So he dug under some tree roots and tied the rest of the cord to them, crossing the lengths over the makeshift tent. Then he crawled in.

Some water was seeping through the blankets and dripping, but the air was already warmer inside. Moon rummaged in the last basket he’d packed for a bowl and set it outside to collect rainwater to drink. Then he lay down on Chime’s other side, away from Jade, and they lay still, listening to the wind howl outside. Thunder rumbled and boomed, and Chime shuddered, then gasped.

“Moon, tell us a story,” Jade ordered.

“I can't think of any you haven't heard before," said Moon, after racking his brain for a few minutes. He was more tired than he'd thought, or maybe it was just that he found it hard to concentrate on anything but Chime's injuries.

“Tell us about the dead city again,” whispered Chime. 

So Moon did that. But even though he spun it out as long as he could, the wind was still roaring and the rain was still pelting when he’d finished.

“I know,” said Chime, faintly. “We sometimes played this game in mentor training. Each person gets to ask one of the others a question, any question, and the other has to answer truthfully.”

Moon could barely make out either of their faces in the dimness of the sodden tent, but he could guess that Jade felt as he did: that this could be a really bad idea. He wondered what Chime wanted to know from them. Jade finally said “Well, why don’t you start then?”

“Why did you never take any warriors as lovers before Moon came?” asked Chime.

Thunder muttered and crashed outside. Moon was shocked, but now that he thought about it, it was an interesting question, and he was curious too.

Jade snorted. “A warrior? Like River? Who would want to give someone like that more power? Who would want to trust someone like that to be so close to her body? The only warrior I could really trust was my clutchmate Balm.” 

“What about Shard and Flint?” said Chime.

“What about them? I trust them to guard my back. That doesn’t means I want to have sex with them!” Jade rolled over on her side and looked across Chime at Moon. “My turn, now.”

“If you say so,” said Moon.

“Yes. Moon, you only ever sleep with Chime or with me. Are you not interested in any of the Arbora? The females all think you are wonderful.”

“He _is_ wonderful,” said Chime, fiercely.

Moon wanted to squirm. “None of them have asked me!”

“That’s not what I asked,” said Jade. She seemed to be restraining herself; Moon felt no compulsion to answer except for his own desire to please her.

“I like Heart,” he said, at last. “But…does being pregnant interfere with a mentor’s abilities? And I don’t want to take her away from the court when we might need her. Jade, you could hardly move just before our babies were born.”

“It shouldn’t be a problem except for a couple of weeks before the end,” said Chime. “And Merit and Thistle are getting better all the time. It should be all right.”

“You should ask her,” said Jade, firmly. “You two would have wonderful babies. Mentors or warriors, all of them.”

“You can’t predict it like that,” protested Chime. He sounded much more like himself. _Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all_ , thought Moon.

“My turn,” he said.

“Well?” said Jade.

“Jade, do you ever want to have sex with Chime?”

There was silence inside the dark tent, while the rain drummed on the blankets and on the ground outside. Moon’s mind quickly described the silence as _ominous_ on Jade’s part and _appalled_ on Chime’s. “Stupid question,” he said. “All right, Chime’s turn again.”

Jade snorted, and this time it sounded like she was trying not to laugh. “No, not really. He’s nice and good-looking and I trust him, but he’s not you, you rock head. But it might be fun to watch you two sometime.”

Moon heard Chime move, as though he were trying to sit up, and then he whimpered. “Stay still, you idiot,” hissed Moon. “You’ll hurt yourself worse!”

Chime subsided, his breathing gradually growing steadier. “Really?” he said, at last.

“Really,” said Jade. “And now I really think we should try to get some sleep.”

The rain was still steady, but the thunder had died away. They lay close to each other, damp but safe for now, and gradually Chime’s breathing slowed and deepened, despite the pain. Moon couldn’t see Jade, but he could hear her, smell her. “Did you really mean that?” he whispered.

“Yes.” She was moving around, as though trying to get comfortable. “But only if you both want it. Now go to sleep.”

He wanted to follow her order, but he couldn't for quite a while. His thoughts kept going back to Chime, and what they could possibly do for him if no one came for them the next day. Finally his half-made plans dribbled into nothingness, and he slept at last.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Moon woke to a strangely quiet morning. He was damp and stiff. Jade was curled against Chime on his good side, her sleeping face furrowed into a frown. Chime was breathing more quickly than a person asleep ought to be, and he felt too warm when Moon touched his scales. Moon’s gut twisted uneasily.

He crept out of the shelter. The ground was littered ankle deep with leaves, twigs, and small branches. Some larger branches lay among them, and Moon was glad that he’d built such a sturdy shelter. The sky was pearly white except where the newly risen sun made it glow gold. Most of the rain had soaked into the sandy soil, although small pools were caught in the tangles of tree roots here and there. The air was chilly, but he could already feel the warmth of the sun where it touched his scales. Behind him, he heard Jade crawling out as well.

“I should hunt,” he said. “This mist should burn off soon.”

She came over and put her arms around him. He nuzzled her neck. “Chime has a fever,” he muttered. “And everything is so wet, I don’t know how I’ll get a fire started.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” she said. She had raised her head and was looking past him. He turned around.

There, silhouetted against the sun, was the huge shape of Stone, his strong wings beating back the mist. Distantly, behind him, were smaller shadows that must be all the warriors that Pearl could spare. Surely they had mentors with them as well.

Moon’s knees felt weak with relief. He leaned against Jade, her arm warm around his waist. Together, they watched Indigo Cloud coming to bring them home.


End file.
